Music is powerful. We are deeply impacted by the music we listen to. It can influence our moods and shape our behaviours. This is especially true for younger kids and teenagers. My grandchildren can sing every word to their favourite tunes. They pay attention to the music around them.
This post includes a collection of 5 musicians who are taking on the climate crisis. It is sourced from the Climate Reality blog. Though this list is far from exhaustive, these are some of Climate Reality’s top musicians discussing climate today!
Across generations and genres, musicians worldwide increasingly recognize the threat of climate change and are expressing themselves as they know best: through their music.
NEIL YOUNG
Neil Young with Crazy Horse – Green Is Blue
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October 24, 2019
Throughout his multi-decade career, Neil Young has never been one to shy away from environmental activism. Regardless, it’s still exciting to see the legendary guitarist take on climate so directly today.
Just last October he released Colorado, an album lamenting the climate crisis and issuing an aggressive call for action.
As just one example, “Green is Blue” is a mournful ballad about how much time has gone by since we first learned that our planet was warming.
“We heard the warning calls.
Ignored them.
We watched the weather change.
We saw the fires and floods.
We saw the people rise
Divided.
We fought each other
While we lost our coveted prize.”
As the song “Shut it Down” shows, however, he’s not waiting around any longer and has hope for the future.
Lines like “When I look at the future / I see hope for you and me / Have to shut the whole system down” make one thing clear: Young believes that we can still act in time.
XIUHTEZCATL
Xiuhtezcatl – Broken
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July 27, 2018
Few artists are making music on the climate crisis as vivid and bold as rapper Xiuhtezcatl Tonatiuh Martinez – a lifelong environmental activist and a trained Climate Reality Leader.
Take his song “Broken”, for example.
In just one track, he grapples with (at least) three important truths.
First, the fact that the climate crisis is already taking a devastating toll across the planet:
“While the walls fall and the world burns
Seas rise and the clock turns.
The earth fighting back with hurricanes
And the earthquakes and the pouring rain.”
Second, that the climate crisis is an unprecedented intergenerational justice issue:
“How will you look your child in the eyes and tell them
Their future wasn’t worth fighting for, could’ve done more but didn’t listen
Didn’t wake up, didn’t speak up, didn’t fight back when there was still time.”
And third, that if we can change as individuals and as a society, there is still hope to avoid the worst of the climate crisis:
“The apathy is so poisonous and it’s killing us…
Gotta recognize that the change we want in the world has to start inside us…
Fight for what we love, start healing the world’s hate.
Build beauty from the ashes after the world breaks.”
PAUL MCCARTNEY
Despite Repeated Warnings
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August 30, 2018
In 2018, the legendary Paul McCartney released the album Egypt Station, and with it “Despite Repeated Warnings,” a powerful piece that expresses his frustration towards climate inaction.
As McCartney explained to the Sun, this song challenges “[T]his idea of: ‘It’s all gonna be fine, don’t worry.’ Oh yeah, sure, there are icebergs melting but it doesn’t matter because they’re not melting in London, so no need to worry.”
What’s more, as he goes on to describe, “[T]he person in the song will be symbolic of politicians who argue that climate change is a hoax.”
With these lyrics, McCartney gives voice to the danger of putting off climate action any longer.
“Below decks the engineer cries
The captain’s gonna leave us when the temperatures rise
The needle’s going up, the engine’s gonna blow
And we’re gonna be left down below”
BILLIE EILISH
Billie Eilish – All the good girls go to hell
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September 4, 2019
Teen superstar and Grammy Award-sweeping phenomenon Billie Eilish is another prominent voice calling on the world to wake up.
Though her activist spirit might show in many ways, there’s no question one of the clearest is through her music. Take her song “All the Good Girls Go to Hell”.
Really, just a few lines into the song make it clear that this eerie chart-topper is about our warming world and the climate-fueled wildfires in her home state.
“Hills burn in California.
My turn to ignore ya.
Don’t say I didn’t warn ya.”
And just in case the lyrics left any doubt, the video features a winged, petroleum-covered Eilish burning.
THE CLIMATE MUSIC PROJECT
Who says all climate change songs have to have lyrics?
Really, some of the most thought-provoking music addressing this crisis today is entirely instrumental.
To see how that’s possible look no further than the Climate Music Project: a San Francisco group that takes real climate data to produce what could be considered the sound of climate change.
As the group’s founder Stephan Crawford explained to the New York Times, “Music is really visceral… Listening to a composition is an active experience, not just a passive one. It can make climate change feel more personal and inspire people to take action.”
Snippets of the Climate Music Project’s work can be found at climatemusic.org/our-music/#climate.
Join the Fight for our Climate
If listening to these songs has you thinking, “What can I do?”, we’ve got an answer. Learn how to become a Climate Reality Leader.
You’ll learn just how the climate crisis is transforming our world and how together we can solve it. You’ll also learn what you can do and develop the skills and know-how to mobilize your friends, family, neighbors, and more to act while we still have time.
As we say, give us three days. We’ll give you the tools to change the world.
Visit climaterealityproject.org/training to learn more!
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
